title: Ethnicity and variations of pelvic organ prolapse bother.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if prolapse symptom severity and bother varies among non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and Native American women with equivalent prolapse stages on physical examination.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective chart review of new patients seen in an academic urogynecology clinic from January 2007 to September 2011. Data were extracted from a standardized intake form, including patients' self-identified ethnicity. All patients underwent a Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POPQ) examination and completed the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory-20 (PFDI-20) with its Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory (POPDI) subscale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five hundred and eighty-eight new patients were identified with pelvic organ prolapse. Groups did not differ by age, prior prolapse, and/or incontinence surgery, or sexual activity. Based on POPDI scores, Hispanic and Native American women reported more bother compared with non-Hispanic white women with stage 2 prolapse (p < 0.01). Level of bother between Hispanic and Native American women with stage 2 prolapse (p = 0.56) was not different. In subjects with ≥ stage 3 prolapse, POPDI scores did not differ by ethnicity (p = 0.24). In multivariate stepwise regression analysis controlling for significant factors, Hispanic and Native American ethnicity contributed to higher POPDI scores, as did depression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among women with stage 2 prolapse, both Hispanic and Native American women had a higher level of bother, as measured by the POPDI, compared with non-Hispanic white women. The level of symptom bother was not different between ethnicities in women with stage 3 prolapse or greater. Disease severity may overshadow ethnic differences at more advanced stages of prolapse.
authors.affiliation: Department of OBGYN, University of New Mexico, MSC 10-5580, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001, USA, gdunivan@salud.unm.edu.
authors.forename: Gena C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Dunivan
authors.forename: Sara B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Cichowski
authors.forename: Yuko M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Komesu
authors.forename: Pamela S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Fairchild
authors.forename: Jennifer T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Anger
authors.forename: Rebecca G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009516:New Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D056887:Pelvic Organ Prolapse / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological